Syllabus – Spring ’18

Long Beach State University
College of the Arts
School of Art
Art 490: Special Topics in Studio Art:ePortfolios for Artists
Spring Semester 2018Instructor:Glenn ZucmanTeaching Assistant:Julie PavlackaGraduate Assistant:Andrea Guerrero

Syllabus

Art 490: ePortfolios 4 Artists

Art 490 sections 1 & 2 – ePortfolios 4 Artists – Spring 2018

Course in designing, critiquing, and maintaining an Artist’s ePortfolio (website). Students will explore a range of platform, aesthetic, and content options. Students will learn online & documentation tools, develop & refine their websites, and interact with classmate websites.

Final

The Final – Last Semester
Last semester we learned that because of our unique 12 pm start time, the Wednesday section had a lot of conflicts with your other class’ finals! The Monday section had no conflicts.

The Final – This Semester
School of Art Director, Karen Kleinfelder, and I worked through all the possible combinations and we discovered that the Wednesday section again does have a potential time conflict. But that the Monday final time has no conflicts for either the Monday section, or the Wednesday section.

In class I asked everyone in the Wednesday section and you all agreed that we could have a joint final in the Monday time slot.

Schedule

Prerequisites

Objectives

The purpose of this course is to design & implement your own ePortfolio. To learn skills and methods that will allow the artist to maintain a current, and contemporary presence online.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Create their own ePortfolio

Easily & Quickly Update the content of their ePortfolio

Change the aesthetics of their ePortfolio presentation

Discuss the aesthetics of many different Artist’s ePortfolios

Prepare Images & Videos for their ePortfolio

Create an online CV (curriculum vitae) or Resume

Create an online Artist’s Statement

Exchange links with other aritsts

Format of the Course

Hybrid course: F2F + Online.

On Monday (section 1) or Wednesday (section 2) of each week students will meet F2F to critique each other’s work, discuss new activities, and to learn new techniques. Most of the artist’s website production will be done online outside of our 1 weekly F2F hour. The class Slack team will be a central discussion space between students and with the instructor. The class website will provide information on many ePortfolio parameters.

Materials

Textbook

Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis.
Available in the CSULB Main Bookstore. The book is available in Paperback/Hardback, eBook & Audiobook. It has 13 chapters and we will read all 13. Unfortunately, the print edition does not number the chapters. I’m numbering everything, including the introduction, as a chapter. The Audiobook from Audible.com has 25 chapters. Here is how the 25 audio chapters correspond to the 13 print chapters:

Online Resources

The Internet itself: we will view each other’s websites, many other artists websites, and various other resources online.

Technology

Technical Competence Required

You should have the ability to use a phone and a laptop. The ability to view websites, to navigate to different locations online, to download and install software on your devices.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Any smart phone and laptop made in the last few years should be sufficient. You can also use the computers in the Spidell Center or the Horn Center.

Minimum Software Requirements

A modern web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etcetera

Support software, like Photoshop, and perhaps a text editor like Brackets, Notepad++, or Sublime Text.

Safety

I hope you become obsessed with building a great ePrtfolio. But don’t forget the other people in your life, the need for fresh air and exercise, etcetera. If you’ve been staring at a screen for 20 minutes, it’s a good idea to look at something further away for a minute.

Grading & Attendance

Points

Final Website: 400 points

Public Parts discussion on Slack: 13 chapters x 16 points = 208

Weekly Activities: 8 activities x 25 points = 200

F2F Participation / Critique: 100 points

Slack Participation / Critique: 100 points

Total Points Possible: 1,008

Grades

900 points = “A”

800 points = “B”

700 points = “C”

600 points = “D”

599 & below = “F”

Attendance

Attendance at the F2F Monday or Wednesday meeting is required. Each week (after Week 1) please draw your CSULB Student ID Card on a 4×6 index card and turn it in at class. Please be sure to use a 4×6 index card, not a 3×5 index card, and not a 4×6 piece of paper.

By “draw your ID card” I mean draw whatever you want that has your name printed clearly on it. You can draw your actual CSULB ID card, or anything else. Have fun!

3 missed classes: final grade lowered by 1 letter

5 missed classes: final grade lowered by 2 letters

7 missed classes: final grade = “F”

Cheating & Plagiarism

I don’t know how you can “cheat” in designing your own web portfolio! But it’d be really dumb. This class is all about helping you present your work to your audience(s). The more time & effort you put in, the better your work will be presented. And, hopefully, you’ll have a better life!

General Policies & Regulations

Other Details

Your Preferred Name

The University now allows you to set your “preferred” name. So if the name on your birth certificate is “Andrew,” but you go by “Drew”, now the university can refer to you as Drew. This makes it easier for me to find you on the roster, and better for your classmates who can refer to you by the name you choose.

Please set your University “Preferred Name” to be the same name that you’d like to use on our Roster, Email, Your Website, etc.

The right to be forgotten

Many weeks I will feature your website or your work in my weekly blog post. I will never show your work and say this is what not to do. I will only show your work and say Look at what a beautiful job Maddy did last week. I hope you feel good about this. But even if you do, it’s possible that you don’t want your photo or name on this website. If I ever post a photo of you, or your work, or list your name, or a link to your website, and you’d rather not have that here, just LMK. You can ask me to take something down today, tomorrow, next week, next year, or next decade. You never have to give me a reason. You only have to give me the URL where the item you’d like taken down is. It’s always up to you.

Be Kind

Remember that you are posting to the live web. You’ve surfed the web, right? So you know that every day you’ll find the most sublime acts of kindness and generosity right next to crazy, unwarranted rage. The good news about your website is that it’s yours. You always have the ability to modify or delete content as you see fit. But remember also that when you write about other artists you are publicly posting about a real person. You can be honest. But you can also be kind. If the golden rule is do unto others as you would have them do unto you, then perhaps the golden rule of blogging should be blog about others as you would have them blog about you.

Incompletes

The School of Art grants “incompletes” rarely and only for the most extreme conditions.

Accommodation

CSULB will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has different needs. It is the student’s responsibility to notify me in advance of the need for special accommodations.

Basic Needs

Any student who is facing academic or personal challenges due to difficulty in affording groceries/food and/or lacking a safe and stable living environment is urged to contact the CSULB Student Emergency Intervention & Wellness Program. The website outlining the resources available is csulb.edu/basicneeds. Students can also e-mail supportingstudents@csulb.edu or call 562/985.2038. You can also reach out to me if I can help identify additional resources.

Have a great class!

Let’s have fun this semester. Launch your website the 1st week! Have a great website by the end. Critique each other’s work. Share links to other artists. Build a great presence in cyberspace!